Market maker
Participant who quotes both bid and ask continuously and earns the spread. On AMM DEXs the role is played by passive liquidity providers.
Aliases: mm, liquidity quoter
Market maker is a participant standing on both sides of the market: posting a bid (willing buy below spot) and an ask (willing sell above spot) at the same time. Profit comes from the spread times volume, plus exchange rebates.
What an MM does on a book
A typical CEX scenario:
- The MM derives a “fair” TON price from a basket of markets, oracles, and volume.
- Posts a buy limit (bid) a few ticks below fair.
- Simultaneously posts a sell limit (ask) a few ticks above fair.
- When both fill, the MM keeps spread × volume as profit.
The MM holds a small inventory and constantly rebalances — selling once it has taken on the bid side, buying once it has shed via the ask side.
MM on AMMs (TON DEXs)
In an AMM model the market-maker role falls to passive LPs:
- An LP deposits assets into the pool and automatically becomes counterparty to every swap.
- Fees of 0.2–0.3% on every swap accrue to LPs.
- Passive: no quotes to post, but the spread is set by the pool formula, not the LP.
Concentrated liquidity (CLMM, as on Bidask and select DeDust pools) revives the active-MM role: the LP picks a narrow price range and effectively posts a band of bid-ask around current price.
Professional MMs in crypto
- Wintermute, GSR, Cumberland, Jane Street — top tier. Provide liquidity on CEXes, run off-exchange markets, and often act as launch market makers for new tokens.
- Smaller MM firms — dozens of teams globally.
- Retail bots — single operator with an algorithm and modest capital.
MM deals at token launch
A token-issuing team often signs a contract with an MM firm:
- The MM gets a loan-to-call: asset borrowed from the team plus a buy-back option at a fixed price.
- The MM keeps a tight spread in the order book during the first months of listing.
- At contract end the MM returns the asset or exercises the option.
The structure is standard and benign. But an aggressive MM deal (large share of supply with the MM) can trigger a sharp drop once the contract ends and the MM unwinds.
MM vs taker
- Maker — adds liquidity (limit order).
- Taker — removes liquidity (market order).
Maker fees are usually lower or even negative (rebate); taker fees are higher. The spread incentivises passive market makers.
TON DeFi has fewer professional MM firms than major CEXes today, but they are active in stable pairs, perpetuals, and the largest jetton pools.